Railway brake



Dec; 30, 1958 w. H. BASIELT RAILWAY BRAKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 1, 1954 w. H. 7BASELT RAILWAY BRAKE Dec. 30, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed NOV. 1, 1954 M wizz'z United States Patent RAILWAY BRAKE Walter" H. Baselt, Flossmoor, Ill., assignor to American gteel Foundries, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of New ersey Application November 1, 1954, Serial No.-465,856

3 Claims. (Cl. 188 -56) V novel supporting arrangement'for a brake beam which will eliminate the fourth point type support'heretofore required in this type of brake arrangement.

It is another object of the invention to provide a brake beam supporting arrangement, wherein the brake beam is supported by a plurality of hangers at each side of the beam.

It is a different object of the invention to provide a truss type brake beam having a main supporting hanger at each end of the beam, and an auxiliary balance and guiding hanger associated with each main supporting hanger.

It is an additional object of the invention to provide a brake arrangement of the type described, wherein a clasp brake arrangement utilizes a unit type beam on one side of the wheel and axle assembly and an novel hanger type beam on the other side of the wheel.

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent in the course of the following description and from an examination of the drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a fragmentary top plan view of a portion of a railway car truck having a brake arrangement embodying the invention,

Figure 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the structure shown in Figure 1,

Figure 2A is a fragmentary view taken along line 2A2A of Figure 2,

Figure 3 is a fragmentary side elevational view illustrating another embodiment of the invention,

Figure 4 is afragmentary top plan view of the beam supporting lugs utilized in the embodiment of Figure 3,

Figure 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of another embodiment of the invention, and

Figure 6 is a side elevational view of the structure shown in Figure 5 It will be noted that in the various figures, certain details of construction may be omitted, wherein said details are more clearly shown in one of the other figures.

Describing the invention in detail and directing attention first to Figures 1 and 2, it will be seen that the truck comprises a wheel and axle assembly indicated generally at 2, said assembly supporting in the conventional manner side frames 4, said side frames being disposed on opposite sides of the truck and generally outboardly of the wheels of the assembly 2. A bolster 6 is resiliently supported as at 8 in the conventional manner from the side frames 4 and extends transversely of the truck to flexibly interconnect said side frames. A pair of brake beams it), 10 are arranged on opposite sides of the wheel and axle assembly 2, said brake beams having brake head-brake shoe assemblies 12, 12 mounted on the ends thereof to engage the tread portion of the associated wheels upon movement of the brake beams 10, as will be well understood by those skilled in the art. The brake beams 10 comprise tension and compression members .13 and 14, respectively, the tension member tapering rearwardly from the central portion of the beam Whereat acentral strut 16 interconnects the tension and compression members. Each .central strut 16 presents a slot 18 which receives and pivotally connects to an associated brake lever 20, 20, the lower ends of the brake levers 20 being interconnected by a pull rod 22. The upper end of the left hand brake lever 20 is link connected as at 24 to one end of an equalizer lever 26, said .lever 26 being fulcrumed intermediate its ends to a bracket 28, the bracket in turn being fixedly secured to the car body' (not shown). The opposite end of the lever 26 is secured to an actuating rod 30, said rod being operatively connected to any conventional source of actuating power, as will be well understood by those skilled in the art. The upper end of the right hand brake lever 20 is pivotally connected .to a pull rod 32, said rod 32 having its other end fixedly pivoted to the bolster 6 as at 34.

A pair of brackets 36, 36 are fixedly secured, for example by integral casting, to the inboard side of the frame member 4, the brackets being arranged on op- -p'osite sidesofthe wheel of the assembly 2. Directing attention' to Figure 2, it-will be seen that each bracket 36 comprises two sets of jaws 38, 38, the two sets of jaws being spaced transversely of the truck from each other and spaced longitudinally of the truck to each other as best seen in Figure l. Directing attention to the left hand brake beam as seen in Figures 1 and 2, it will be seen that the right hand jaw 38 receives the upper end of a main hanger 40, said hanger 40 comprising a rectangular loop as is best seen in the fragmentary view of Figure 2A' The lower portion of the looped hanger 4%) is pivotally received within an appropriate aperture 42 formed in the brake head-brake shoe assembly 12. Directing attention to the outboard jaws 33, as seen in Fig ures 1 and 2, it will be noted that they pivotally receive the upper portion of auxiliary balance hangers 46, said balance hangers 46 comprising a rectangular loop similar to the main hanger 48. The lower extremities of the balance hangers 46 are pivotally received within brackets 48, said brackets 48 being securely attached to the related brake beams 16.

Thus it will be seen that the arrangement provides a novel suspension means for brake beams on opposite sides of a wheel and axle assembly, said suspension means comprising a main hanger 4t) and an auxiliary guiding hanger or balance hanger 46, the hangers being in substantially parallel relationship, and the guiding hangers 40 being longer in length than the auxiliary hangers 46, whereby the auxiliary hangers 46 tend to accurately posi tion the brake beam and particularly the arcuate wheel engaging surface of the brake head-brake shoe assembly in correct relationship to accurately engage the tread portion of the associated wheel upon actuationof the braking linkage.

Figures 3 and 4 in the drawings illustrate a modified form of the invention in which the opening between the jaws 38 of each bracket 36 face away from the bolster 6 to facilitate assembly of the hangers on their respective brackets. This form of the invention is otherwise similar to the structure illustrated in Figures 3, 2 and 2A.

Directing attention to Figures 5 and 6, it will be seen that the truck here illustrated is in its structural essentials similar to the truck shown in Figures 1 through 4. The brake linkage illustrated again comprises a pair of brake beams disposed on opposite sides of the assembly 2 and an actuating linkage operatively similar to the structure heretofore shown and arranged to bring the brake Fatented Dec. 30, 1958 beams and carried brake head-brake shoe assemblies into frictional engagement with opposite sides of the wheel treads. Particularly, it will be noted that the outboard brake beam 60 is pivotally carried from the frame in a manner identical with that of the brake beams of the previous embodiment, that is, by a pair of parallel hangers at opposite sides of the beam. The inboard brake beam 62, however, is of the unit truss type having guide lugs 64 formed on its extremities outboardly of the brake headbrake shoe assemblies 12, the guide lugs 64 are received within slot forming brackets 66 integrally formed on the inboard side of the frames 4. The brackets 66 and defined slot serve to linearly guide the brake beam 62 into frictional engagement with the tread of the wheel when the brake is actuated. It will be thus seen that in this embodiment, the hanger type beam is combined with the unit lug and slot mounted beam to form a unitary clasp brake arrangement for the truck.

I claim:

1. In a clasp brake arrangement for a railway car truck comprising a wheel and axle assembly and a frame, including spaced side frames interconnected by a bolster, supported on said assembly, the combination of: a pair of brake beams disposed on opposite sides of the assembly and carrying at their opposite ends brake heads engageable with the wheels of said assembly, and means to move said brake beams and their related brake heads into and out of engagement with said wheels, one of said brake beams having end portions slidably mounted within recesses of the respective side frames, the other of said brake beams having end portions supported from the respective side frames by brake hangers.

2. A clasp brake arrangement, according to claim 1, wherein each end portion of said other brake beam is supported from the frame by a pair of spaced parallel brake hangers having their upper ends pivotally connected to the related side frame on parallel horizontal axes and having their lower ends pivotally connected to the brake beam end portion and related brake head, respectively, on horizontal axes parallel to each other and to said firstmentioned axes.

3. A clasp brake arrangement, according to claim 2, wherein the brake hangers of each of said pair have their upper ends pivotally connected to a common brake hanger bracket on the frame.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Baselt Aug. 1, 

